Monday, September 27, 2010

Moving and Waiting

We've just moved to a different property in the community. At the moment Ruth is buzzing around doing a lot of little jobs to get everything the way that it should be in time for my parents' arrival next week.

We're looking forward to them coming, and so are the children.

Spring is here and summer is coming. I'm in shorts and T-shirt again (yay!), something I couldn't imagine happening after a very cold and wet couple of months. It's funny (or not) how my sense of spiritual well-being is also tied into the weather. When it's warm and I can go walking, sit in the countryside and spend time with God there I feel better about life, the universe and everything. This means, of course, that I'm generally much happier in Australia than I was in the UK, but it's strange.

Of course, the weather doesn't actually change anything for me spiritually - it just changes how I feel and my perspective. There is a related effect though, as I'm less likely to get quality time spent with God if I'm trapped inside. I suppose that, for me, I need to develop that discipline of not letting the weather control my spiritual priorities.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Accountability and Hypocrisy

The title of this post seems a little high falutin bearing in mind that I just want to acknowledge the difficulty of being in a position of responsibility (especially being involved in teaching) having having to live a blameless life for the sake of those we have responsibility for.

In an hour I'll be teaching a session on 'Self-Control' and I know that it's an area where I am weak. I've been struggling with self-discipline recently, as my usually-quite-structed time with God has been all over the place in the last week. I'm feeling that, let me tell you.

So, I can throw in the towel or get up there and teach. Actually, there's a third option. I can teach the stuff I know to be true, whilst prefacing it with an acknowledgement of my own hypocrisy in this area. That's the option for me, and it's really the only option for any of us.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, for we know that we who teach will be judged more severly" - James 3:1